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Recharge Wrap-up: Pikes Peak Honda CR-Z, Tesla's liquid-cooled cable

Honda will race a CR-Z hybrid in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The car will use Electric SH-AWD, which probably means it will be using electric motors to power the rear wheels. Whether the Pikes Peak CR-Z uses the same powertrain as the upcoming Acura NSX or the 3.5-liter V6 with three-motor hybrid system used in the Acura RLX Sport Hybrid is still unclear. The car will also use Acura's Precision All-Wheel Steering (P-AWS) system. The CR-Z will be piloted by Tetsuya Yamano. Read more at Hybrid Cars, or, if you read Japanese, at Response. Tesla has introduced a thinner, liquid-cooled Supercharger cable. While the convenience of not having to "wrestle a good-sized snake into the car," as Elon Musk calls it in a shareholder speech, is wonderful, it could also allow for faster charging in the future. The liquid-cooled charging cable "also has the potential for increased power of the Supercharger long-term," says Musk. A cable able to withstand larger loads could mean shorter stops when it's time for a charge. Tesla has installed the first next-generation cable at the Mountain View Supercharger. Read more at Charged EVs. Smart is offering its Twinamic automatic dual-clutch transmission on more models in Europe. In addition to the 71-horsepower Smart Fortwo, the DCT will now be available in the 90-horsepower Fortwo and the 71-horsepower Forfour. In the Fortwo, the Twinamic DCT adds ˆ1,275 (about $1,437) to the price over the manual transmission, and is an extra ˆ1,425 (about $1,606) in the Forfour. The option of steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters as part of the Sport package makes driving the efficient microcar even more fun. Deliveries of the newly equipped vehicles begin at the end of July. Read more in the press release below. smart extends twinamic range for fortwo and forfour: Even more models with automatic transmission Stuttgart. Following in the footsteps of the smart fortwo with 52 kW/71 hp, the smart fortwo with 66 kW/90 hp and the smart forfour with 52 kW/71 hp are now also available with fully automatic twinamic dual clutch transmission. This costs an extra 1275 euros compared to the versions with 5-speed manual transmission (forfour: 1425 euros). This means that both model series now offer a choice between no fewer than nine engine/transmission combinations. Delivery of the new models will begin at the end of July 2015.

Fisker to unveil its all-electric EMotion at CES in January

Back from the brink, electric carmaker Fisker says it will debut its EMotion sedan at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. The EMotion is notable for several reasons, including its promised 400-plus miles of range, the ability to charge to 125 miles of range in just 9 minutes and its lidar autonomous technology. The car will also feature four butterfly doors and will be built with carbon fiber rims and a mixture of carbon fiber and aluminum in the body to save on weight. It's also the second go at building an EV for Fisker, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2013 after the Fisker Karma luxury plug-in hybrid fell flat. Fisker was sold in 2014 to Chinese auto supplier Wanxiang Group for about $149 million. And the EMotion can be yours for a cool $129,000. In fact, the company started taking pre-orders in June with a $2,000 deposit, even though the car won't come out until 2019. The EMotion is seen as a rival to Tesla, but CEO Henrik Fisker tells The Street he sees room for competition in the EV segment. "I don't think anyone is out to kill anybody," Fisker said. "Tesla doesn't really have a competitor. It doesn't look like one is going to emerge. I think it's time to move to a next level of this technology and I believe that we have come up with some real breakthroughs." Fisker also told The Street the company is simultaneously developing an affordable version of the EMotion, aimed to be priced around $34,000, that's due out in 2020. That's just a hair under the $35,000 base price of the Tesla Model 3. The veteran car designer first revealed the EMotion via Twitter in June. He told Autoblog recently that he's looking to buy an existing factory to build the car but hadn't yet chosen one, saying "We don't have to make a decision until the end of the year." The EMotion will be powered by two electric motors giving it all-wheel drive, lithium-ion battery packs sourced from LG Chem with a cooling system designed by Fisker that increases energy density. Related Video: Featured Gallery Fisker EMotion View 14 Photos News Source: The Street Celebrities Green Plants/Manufacturing CES Fisker Tesla Green Automakers Technology Emerging Technologies Autonomous Vehicles Electric Sedan Henrik Fisker

Tesla takes New York Times to task for damning Model S review

The social media tête-à-tête between the New York Times and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, stemming from a defamatory review by John Broder of the Model S and Tesla's new "Supercharger" network on the East Coast, is heating up in a major way. Just yesterday we summarized the Twitter spat, and now Musk has expanded upon the data recorded during Broder's test drive - adding major credence to the criticism of the NYT writer.
The smoking gun in this case is the information that was captured by the data recorder in Broder's loaned Model S. The data recording function is one that is only activated for consumers when permission has been expressly granted, says Musk, but is always turned on in the case of media vehicles. Thusly equipped, Broder's vehicle was keeping track of speed, charging data, map data and more, presumably without the writer's foreknowledge.
The evidence recorded by the in-car systems happens to contravene Broder's most damning claims of the Tesla, says Musk in his article titled A Most Peculiar Test Drive. First, and perhaps most shockingly, the Model S "State of Charge" log shows that Broder's test car "never ran out of energy at any time." Broder's reporting indicated that the car ran completely out of juice at one point and had to be evacuated on a flatbed truck. The data log also points out that the trip was made at speeds ranging from 65 to 81 miles per hour, where the writer claimed to have set the cruise control at 54 mph, with periods of driving as slowly as 45 mph.